WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.279 We're going to carry on looking at Habakkuk. Now, that's difficult. Okay, so can we recap 00:00:10.279 --> 00:00:17.359 the story so far? There was Habakkuk first complaint. Can anyone tell me what the first 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:21.839 complaint of Habakkuk was? Yes, there was a lot of evil and there was a lot of sin in 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:25.920 God's people, in Judah. And he was saying, how long is this injustice going on? What 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:30.640 are you going to do about it, God? God's first answer, I am doing something. And what was 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:35.880 it he was doing? There's this terrible injustice happening. There's no law keeping that there's 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:40.520 idolatry in Judah. And you know, Habakkuk says, how long ago? What are you going to 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:45.160 do about it? And God says, well, I am going to send the Babylonians. And I'm going to 00:00:45.160 --> 00:00:50.760 send the Babylonians to destroy and to take Judah into captivity. That's the answer. 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:56.320 So the second complaint comes in from Habakkuk. And what's that? The first answer from God 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:01.960 is, I'm sending Babylon. Habakkuk's second complaint is Babylon, surely not. You can 00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:10.319 be using an evil nation like Babylon to work out justice and judgment on the people of 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:16.400 God. So that was the second complaint. And then last week we looked at the first half 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:23.960 of God's answer, which was really this recognition that Habakkuk had to be patient and also that 00:01:23.960 --> 00:01:30.520 God was going to do something amazing. He was eventually going to redeem the people. 00:01:30.520 --> 00:01:40.640 And in the appointed time, there would be relief for both for Judah in terms of the Babylonian 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:48.519 captivity being broken, but also a greater appointed time. And we looked at that briefly 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:55.840 at being Jesus, the coming of Christ at exactly the right time. So that's where we are so 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:02.480 far. Now we're coming to the second half of God's answer because what Habakkuk was worried 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:07.280 about was that God didn't really care about justice and God was allowing evil things to 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:15.560 happen. And so God brings his answer in the next section. So this is the five woes that 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:22.560 God brings upon the Chaldeans or the Babylonians. In other words, he's using them to execute 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:30.120 his justice, but that doesn't exempt them from judgment because they are not believing 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:42.599 and following and loving God. So why don't we split up the reading and we'll have different 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:48.360 people doing the different woes. So there's five woes. So who wants to read the first 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:53.900 woes? It's verses 7 and 8. I'll start with verse 6. Shall not all these take up their 00:02:53.900 --> 00:03:01.159 taunt against him scoffing and riddles for him and say. So in other words, God is saying 00:03:01.159 --> 00:03:09.960 here, he's personifying Babylon as an individual he, an individual person. And all those that 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:14.120 are referred to there is referring to the people of Judah who will eventually see God's 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:19.319 judgment. Okay. So who wants to read the first section? Simon there, look at that. So I like 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:48.759 to see hands up verses 7 and 8. Okay. That's woe number one. Second woe. 00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:55.759 Nine to 11. Who's going to do that? Okay. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:27.379 Okay. Third woe is verses 12 to 14. Brian, do you want to read that? Your hand was up 00:04:27.379 --> 00:04:53.379 or Mary? Okay. Fourth woe. Mary. That's 15 to 17. 00:04:53.379 --> 00:05:00.379 Holy Jesus makes his neighbour strength and forward a wrath and make him drunk in order 00:05:00.379 --> 00:05:06.379 to gain their nakedness. You will have your fellow shame instead of glory. Drink yourself 00:05:06.379 --> 00:05:13.379 and show your un-pity singing. The cup and the lords right hand with hand out to you 00:05:13.379 --> 00:05:19.379 and utter shame and power from your glory. The vial done to leaven and vote of the holy 00:05:19.379 --> 00:05:26.379 God for the blood of God and vial of Judah. Okay. And the last woe, the fifth woe is verses 00:05:26.379 --> 00:05:33.379 18 to 20. What prophet is an idol when its mays have 00:05:33.379 --> 00:05:38.379 shaped it a method image, a teacher of lies, for its maker trusts in his own creation when 00:05:38.379 --> 00:05:44.379 he makes speechless idols? Woe to him he says to a wooden thing, awake, to a silent stone 00:05:44.379 --> 00:05:50.379 lies. Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver and there is no breath 00:05:50.379 --> 00:05:57.379 in it at all. But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before 00:05:57.379 --> 00:06:05.540 him. Thank you. So that's the second half of God's second answer to Habakkuk's second 00:06:05.540 --> 00:06:16.660 complaint. Okay. And what basically we have these five judgment calls by God on Babylon 00:06:16.660 --> 00:06:23.820 and wider than Babylon, just on the kind of things that we see that God is unhappy with. 00:06:23.820 --> 00:06:30.860 Now biblically, a cry of woe. When you get woe, well, originally what happened was a 00:06:30.860 --> 00:06:36.860 woe was usually associated with a funeral. So people would cry out woe and would cry 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:42.740 out the name of the person who had died. And a funeral was an expression of grief and loss. 00:06:42.740 --> 00:06:47.939 You know, we're very unexpressive at our funerals and quiet. But in the ancient Ereist, it was 00:06:47.939 --> 00:06:53.259 very, you know, it was very expressive and there would be these cries of woe because 00:06:53.259 --> 00:06:59.740 of someone who had died. But the prophets in the Bible took that expression of grief 00:06:59.740 --> 00:07:06.379 and applied it to those who were alive. And it became synonymous with God's judgment, 00:07:06.379 --> 00:07:13.100 God's cry of justice. And when you have woe in the prophecies, it means it's a word coming 00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:23.060 from God of judgment for people who are as good as dead because they were rebelling against 00:07:23.060 --> 00:07:29.620 Him. And this five, series of five woes was given to Habakkuk personally, which we believe 00:07:29.620 --> 00:07:35.019 he went on then to tell the people of Judah to encourage them that God's judgment would 00:07:35.019 --> 00:07:43.259 come upon Babylon, even though Babylon was being used by God, and it's forth telling 00:07:43.259 --> 00:07:51.819 the coming doom of this great, powerful nation. And that's important. That's important in 00:07:51.819 --> 00:07:56.659 lots of different ways for us as well today to recognize God's hand in history and what 00:07:56.659 --> 00:08:07.180 happens. So I'm going to quickly go through these woes. The first woe that was read, woe 00:08:07.180 --> 00:08:12.379 to Him who heaps up what is not His own for how long and loads Himself up. It's actually, 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:18.139 I'm an old timer, okay? And you get set in your ways when you're an old timer. And I use 00:08:18.139 --> 00:08:30.500 the NIV UK version, okay? And for these kind of poetic parts of Scripture, the NIV is slightly 00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:40.620 more of a dynamic equivalent rather than a direct translation, but sometimes its poetry 00:08:40.620 --> 00:08:47.919 is easier to understand than the more literal ESV. So I'm going to kind of read from that 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:53.939 as well from the NIV. So what he's saying in this first woe, he's talking about how 00:08:53.939 --> 00:09:01.579 much the Babylonians have gained strength by stealing, by extortion and by pillage, 00:09:01.579 --> 00:09:07.860 and the cry goes out, how long was this going to go on? And God is saying, yep, you've made 00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:16.379 your success that way, but very shortly debtors will arise. And we'll, sorry, I'm going to 00:09:16.379 --> 00:09:21.139 find it in my own. Yeah, will not your debtors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and 00:09:21.139 --> 00:09:26.779 meet you tremble? Then you will become their victim because you have plundered many nations. 00:09:26.779 --> 00:09:35.460 And God is saying that, really what he's saying to them is that in God's time, Babylon itself 00:09:35.460 --> 00:09:42.340 who has extorted and who has crushed this nation, will themselves be victims of extortion 00:09:42.340 --> 00:09:48.100 and being crushed. And that of course happened with the Medes and the Persians who destroyed 00:09:48.100 --> 00:09:54.259 and broke the Babylonian power. And in many ways there's kind of a New Testament parallel 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:59.899 with the measure that you use is the measure you'll be judged by in Matthew 7. And it's 00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:05.820 saying if that's how you act to others, others will act like that to you. And that can be 00:10:05.820 --> 00:10:10.139 at a personal level, but it's also here obviously at a national level. And God is saying your 00:10:10.139 --> 00:10:18.580 sin will always be judged Babylon. Sometimes it will be through payback from another nation 00:10:18.580 --> 00:10:24.379 because of your injustice or sometimes it will be on the last day. Your sin will always 00:10:24.379 --> 00:10:33.100 be paid back. First of all, second woe. Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain, 00:10:33.100 --> 00:10:37.460 set his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin. You have plotted the ruin of many 00:10:37.460 --> 00:10:42.860 shaming your own house and forfeited your life. The stones of the wall will cry out and the 00:10:42.860 --> 00:10:49.660 beams of the woodwork will echo it. And he's speaking here about building dynasties, trying 00:10:49.660 --> 00:10:58.100 to build them high up above opposition and security and doing it unjustly, aggressive 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:05.540 expansionism, destroying the national identity of other nations in order to do so, dispossessing 00:11:05.539 --> 00:11:16.500 them, using their workforce in the wrong way. And there's a great reminder of this in Daniel 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:24.339 chapter four. I think, I think Corrie might have mentioned this before, when God brings 00:11:24.339 --> 00:11:29.219 down Nebuchadnezzar who represents Babylon, who's the king. And he says that this, all 00:11:29.219 --> 00:11:32.980 this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 12 months later, as the king was walking on the roof 00:11:32.980 --> 00:11:38.779 of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, is not this great Babylon? I have built as 00:11:38.779 --> 00:11:44.820 the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty. It's exactly 00:11:44.820 --> 00:11:49.379 what God's speaking about in that second woe. Some king representing a nation taking 00:11:49.379 --> 00:11:54.460 all the glory for himself away from God. And then we have these were even, even as the 00:11:54.460 --> 00:11:59.700 words put on his lips, a voice came from heaven. This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar, 00:11:59.700 --> 00:12:03.460 the royal authority has been taken away. You'll be driven away from people who will live like 00:12:03.460 --> 00:12:12.020 the wild animals. You will eat grass like the ox. And the judgment of this woe comes 00:12:12.020 --> 00:12:19.940 upon Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon as a result. Okay, second one. Well, actually, just one 00:12:19.940 --> 00:12:31.180 more thing about this second woe. It's interesting. God says in that second woe, the stones of 00:12:31.180 --> 00:12:36.700 the wall will cry out and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. It's a really interesting 00:12:36.700 --> 00:12:45.540 little phrase there where God is saying, look, even creation, even the inanimate creation 00:12:45.539 --> 00:12:51.659 will testify against the injustice, they will be used as witnesses. And just that kind of 00:12:51.659 --> 00:12:58.860 whole reminder that God is constantly watching, even when we think nobody's looking, even 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:04.259 when we're only surrounded by inanimate objects, they will call out and cry out against injustice 00:13:04.259 --> 00:13:10.779 against the living God. So it's a really sweet kind of poetic word that we have there. So 00:13:10.779 --> 00:13:17.259 then we come to the third woe. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, establishes 00:13:17.259 --> 00:13:22.620 a town by crime, has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people's labor is only 00:13:22.620 --> 00:13:27.299 fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing. And it seems to be 00:13:27.299 --> 00:13:35.179 that God is here condemning really the stripping back of nations of self-respect and of dignity 00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:46.739 by using them and forced labor and enslavement, debasing them. And just the city is becoming 00:13:46.739 --> 00:13:54.979 places of moral degeneracy and corruption. Jeremiah 31 speaks about it again with Babylon. 00:13:54.979 --> 00:13:58.699 This is what the Lord Almighty says, Babylon's thick wall will be levelled, our high gates 00:13:58.699 --> 00:14:03.459 set on fire, the people's exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations labor is only fuel 00:14:03.460 --> 00:14:10.860 for the flames. Very similar words. Is that the slavery is an abuse of humanity and is 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:16.700 a waste of their creative gifts and of their dignity. And the buildings that they are building 00:14:16.700 --> 00:14:28.780 will not last, God says, because of God's glory. And God's glory will be something that 00:14:28.779 --> 00:14:37.860 can never be broken. Fourth woe, 15 to 17. Woe to him who gives 00:14:37.860 --> 00:14:42.339 drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wine skin to their drunk so that he can gaze 00:14:42.339 --> 00:14:49.139 on their naked bodies. He will be filled with shame instead of glory and so on. And again 00:14:49.139 --> 00:14:56.019 is this judgment on Babylon for stripping nations of their respect, taking advantage 00:14:56.019 --> 00:15:00.460 of them, debasing them. I don't think there's anything literal about this. I don't think 00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:06.419 the Babylonians gave free drink to the nation of Judah and to get them drunk and so on. 00:15:06.419 --> 00:15:11.860 But I think it's a picture of humiliation. It's a picture of just stripping them of 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:15.579 anything of that. You know, being stripped naked, you know, Jesus being stripped naked 00:15:15.579 --> 00:15:22.460 is that whole picture of humiliation and exposure and a lack of dignity. And he says in verse 00:15:22.460 --> 00:15:29.940 16, woe to him who makes his neighbor drunk, you pour out your wrath and make them drunk 00:15:29.940 --> 00:15:35.540 in order to gaze on their nakedness. You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. 00:15:35.540 --> 00:15:40.980 Drink yourself and show your answer. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come round to 00:15:40.980 --> 00:15:49.620 you. And that's just what's often used of God in judgment is a cup of wrath that the 00:15:49.620 --> 00:15:57.860 nations have to drink. They will not be exempt, even though they're being used by the Lord, 00:15:57.860 --> 00:16:01.740 they'll not be exempt from judgment. Now I want to step out of the passage just for 00:16:01.740 --> 00:16:15.340 a moment quickly to let you just dwell for a moment on this cup of wrath and the astonishing 00:16:15.340 --> 00:16:26.420 reality that God the Son drank that cup of wrath to its dregs. John 18 and verse 11, 00:16:26.420 --> 00:16:32.379 Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away, shall I not drink the cup the Father has given 00:16:32.379 --> 00:16:39.940 me. And so there's this parallel between the judgment that God places on all who are sinners 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:45.700 and the nations and the Babylonians and the individuals, but also the cup that he takes 00:16:45.700 --> 00:16:52.460 upon himself, the person of Jesus as he drinks that cup of judgment and that cup of wrath. 00:16:52.460 --> 00:17:01.940 The wrath due to me and due to you is poured out as drunk by another. You don't drink 00:17:01.940 --> 00:17:07.380 the cup of God's wrath as a believer. Jesus drunk that cup of wrath to the fool on our 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:14.940 behalf. And there's this reality that without judgment, there can be no redemption for us. 00:17:14.940 --> 00:17:21.220 And even without the judgment that is meted out here on Judah, there's no remnant that 00:17:21.220 --> 00:17:30.940 comes back. There's no hope for them because God is working out his justice. But in God's 00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:38.460 judgment, we therefore recognize that there's redemption and our cup is empty because it's 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:44.460 been drunk. And I want you to meditate on that and think about that. It's very easy 00:17:44.460 --> 00:17:51.660 for us, so easy for us to be complacent and to think what Jesus has done is no big deal 00:17:51.660 --> 00:18:01.380 all the time. I find that for myself. And yet we have this astonishing reality. You've 00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:06.500 got a short straw just now because I'm doing both sermons on Sunday as well. I've done 00:18:06.500 --> 00:18:10.140 this sermon so what you'll probably find is there's lots of things that are intertwining 00:18:10.140 --> 00:18:15.380 and fusing and I'll repeat things. But I hope they'll be repeated because the themes are 00:18:15.380 --> 00:18:21.700 quite similar. But let's remember that we don't deserve the great grace and love of 00:18:21.700 --> 00:18:28.460 God but it's irresistible grace is ours because of what has happened on the cross. The cross 00:18:28.460 --> 00:18:36.900 speaks of the unquestionable reality of judgment of every single sin. And that's in many ways 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:43.100 what has been spoken of here by God. So the fifth will, the last will here, and we're 00:18:43.099 --> 00:18:48.819 really only scanning it very quickly. The fifth will is really all about idolatry. You 00:18:48.819 --> 00:18:53.500 know, what values an idol since a man has carved it or an image that teaches lies for 00:18:53.500 --> 00:18:58.459 he who makes it trust in its own creation. He makes idols that cannot speak woe to him 00:18:58.459 --> 00:19:05.459 who says to would come to life. And the word for idols there is kind of godlets, little 00:19:05.460 --> 00:19:15.180 gods, tiny gods, dead gods. And it speaks of these gods here as those who cannot speak 00:19:15.180 --> 00:19:20.460 and who cannot bring guidance. And yet this is who the Babylonians were worshiping and 00:19:20.460 --> 00:19:28.819 this is who the Babylonians would be judged over. They were focusing on created things 00:19:28.819 --> 00:19:33.180 and had no relationship with the living God. They worshiped idols because it was easier 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:38.100 because it gave them what they want because they could live any way they wanted as a result. 00:19:38.100 --> 00:19:44.140 And I think the opposite for us as believers and the opposite for what it should have been 00:19:44.140 --> 00:19:50.100 for Judah was they had a relationship with the living God. And we have that through Jesus 00:19:50.100 --> 00:19:56.259 Christ. We have a God who guides us. So you know, that whole thing about guidance is so 00:19:56.259 --> 00:20:05.900 important, isn't it? That we have a God who is able to show us and lead us is not silent 00:20:05.900 --> 00:20:17.900 but is one who shows and who we can reciprocate love and relationship with. And so there's 00:20:17.900 --> 00:20:24.500 this reality of recognising that when we replace God with anything in our lives, we can't 00:20:24.500 --> 00:20:31.900 know relationship with the divine and we can't know guidance from him and help and redemption. 00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:37.500 And so the greatest mistake we can make is leaving God out of our lives. And yet it's 00:20:37.500 --> 00:20:46.420 the deepest temptation. That's the paradox of our lives is that it's the daftest thing 00:20:46.420 --> 00:20:53.299 to do but it's the thing we're tempted most to do. And that's the paradox into the human 00:20:53.299 --> 00:20:59.740 condition. But it comes under God's judgment when we replace him with idols as it was the 00:20:59.740 --> 00:21:07.299 case here. So whether it's idolatry or whether it's injustice or whether it's slavery or 00:21:07.299 --> 00:21:12.099 whether it's stealing or whether it's setting dynasties up and setting power in our own 00:21:12.099 --> 00:21:21.619 place, God is saying to Habakkuk an answer to his complaint and also to us that every 00:21:21.619 --> 00:21:27.259 single sin will be judged and will be dealt with. So I think as we close, there's two 00:21:27.259 --> 00:21:31.459 perspectives. One is the way we look at the world in the light of quite a difficult and 00:21:31.459 --> 00:21:39.339 slightly passage that we don't feel touches our day to day lives in many ways. The way 00:21:39.339 --> 00:21:43.699 we look at the world and also the way we look at our own lives in the light of the fact 00:21:43.699 --> 00:21:49.859 every single sin will be judged and in the light that God is absolutely just either in 00:21:49.859 --> 00:21:56.659 punishing sin on the last day or in punishing sin and his own son Jesus Christ. So the way 00:21:56.659 --> 00:22:03.339 we look at the world then, we begin to see it the way God sees it here because this is 00:22:03.339 --> 00:22:09.740 a national, international focus that God has here on Babylon and on Judah and on what's 00:22:09.740 --> 00:22:16.479 happening. We can see what God hates at a global national level, things that we may be 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:23.140 seen powerless over and the world which we live seems to relentlessly mock the reality 00:22:23.140 --> 00:22:31.140 of God and what we see as we've seen before seems incompatible with who he is, the world 00:22:31.140 --> 00:22:37.460 that he has created, the stealing, the extortion, the corruption, the destructive power building, 00:22:37.460 --> 00:22:43.900 the modern slavery, the injustice, the debasing of others, the cheapening of life, idolatry. 00:22:43.900 --> 00:22:51.019 We can see these woes almost perfectly describing the world we live in, whether it's Ukraine 00:22:51.019 --> 00:22:58.340 or Civil War in Yemen or economic corruption that we see around us or the abusive power 00:22:58.340 --> 00:23:05.180 or modern slavery or the relegation of God at almost every level and the philosophy of 00:23:05.180 --> 00:23:13.380 secular humanism we see all around us just as Judah saw it with Babylon and maybe we 00:23:13.380 --> 00:23:23.180 asked the same question, how long? That question of verse 6, for how long? How long? Someone 00:23:23.180 --> 00:23:27.740 very close to me and my family this week was opening the fridge, I was hearing about and 00:23:27.740 --> 00:23:34.100 we were just talking about the raging fires in Europe and everything, I said, I think 00:23:34.100 --> 00:23:41.220 the end's close. Might not be wrong. Of course that might not be the case but nonetheless 00:23:41.220 --> 00:23:49.220 there's this recognition that this world will not go on forever in its rebellious state 00:23:49.220 --> 00:23:57.100 against God. How long? And yet we remember just as it seemed miserable for Judah here 00:23:57.100 --> 00:24:04.660 to be enslaved by Babylon, we remember that Babylon was destroyed and we remember that 00:24:04.660 --> 00:24:12.060 nations since then great nations have been destroyed and the kingdom of evil was defeated 00:24:12.060 --> 00:24:17.140 on the cross and will be ultimately destroyed when Jesus returns. And it's interesting 00:24:17.140 --> 00:24:22.580 that Revelation 18, speaking about the end time when Jesus comes back and the kingdom 00:24:22.580 --> 00:24:28.300 of darkness calls it Babylon. It calls it Babylon so there's this connection between 00:24:28.300 --> 00:24:34.100 what is spoken of here and what happened to Judah with the whole of the realm of evil 00:24:34.099 --> 00:24:39.179 and the kingdom of darkness and it's spoken of, so you know, the great prostitute Babylon 00:24:39.179 --> 00:24:48.899 as it's spoken of in Revelation 18 and 17. So there is, we look to a future end and we 00:24:48.899 --> 00:24:55.179 all look forward to that weird and that place between Christ first and the second coming. 00:24:55.179 --> 00:25:01.299 And there will be their day as verse 14 says, when the earth will be filled with the knowledge 00:25:01.299 --> 00:25:07.700 of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And the great revelation of the glory 00:25:07.700 --> 00:25:12.899 of the Lord is Jesus Christ, Hebrews 1 through the sun is the radiance of God's glory, the 00:25:12.899 --> 00:25:23.059 exact representation of his being. And so one day God's glory will cover all of the 00:25:23.059 --> 00:25:29.940 world and that is what we look forward to, a fundamental change, a revolution of goodness 00:25:29.940 --> 00:25:39.740 like no other. So we need to, I think, help, we need to encourage ourselves by trying to 00:25:39.740 --> 00:25:44.820 look at the world in which we live in the same way as God was encouraging Habakkuk to 00:25:44.820 --> 00:25:55.180 look at the world he was in, recognizing there is evil, mystery, difficulty, bewilderment 00:25:55.180 --> 00:26:01.380 on our part, but to trust God and to say, I have a perfect plan, I know exactly what 00:26:01.380 --> 00:26:07.779 I'm doing and we trust in him, maybe at a micro level, but also the way, secondly, the 00:26:07.779 --> 00:26:11.700 way we look at the world also the way we look at our lives. 00:26:11.700 --> 00:26:20.460 So a passage like this I think, it helps us pray because we begin to know the kind of 00:26:20.460 --> 00:26:28.460 things to pray for, we need to pray for patience, we need to pray for a perspective, for humility, 00:26:28.460 --> 00:26:35.460 for a sense of forgiveness and for the glory of God. So we pray in the light of a passage 00:26:35.460 --> 00:26:41.539 like this to the sovereign, great sovereign God, but also how we live, because 2 Peter 00:26:41.539 --> 00:26:46.539 3, 11 and 12, speaking about the return of Jesus, because he's coming back, how then 00:26:46.539 --> 00:26:53.539 should we live to holy and godly lives? So because Jesus is coming back, it matters that 00:26:53.539 --> 00:26:57.500 we don't cheat on our wives or husbands, it matters that we don't steal, it matters 00:26:57.500 --> 00:27:02.460 that we're not bitter, it matters that we work on our own heart with the power of the 00:27:02.460 --> 00:27:09.819 Holy Spirit to be holy and godly, exactly where God has placed us, whether it's something 00:27:09.819 --> 00:27:19.299 like the banishment to Babylon that the people were placed in or in our own very ordinary 00:27:19.299 --> 00:27:27.579 lives. We live with humility and hope that every single act of evil will be held to account 00:27:27.579 --> 00:27:34.619 and it will be destroyed and we will live in a new place where righteousness dwells 00:27:34.619 --> 00:27:42.019 and we'll plant our feet on the ground of Edinburgh or of any other place where it'll 00:27:42.019 --> 00:27:48.419 become righteous. So how we pray, how we live and also how we share our faith, just remembering 00:27:48.419 --> 00:27:58.019 that these metatruths affect the way we witness, it's important that people know they're 00:27:58.019 --> 00:28:04.779 made in God's image, that they've broken that image, that image is broken both by nature 00:28:04.779 --> 00:28:08.980 and by choice and that there's only one way back for people. And it's important to do 00:28:08.980 --> 00:28:13.579 that because otherwise people would just think your faith is just a personal thing that works 00:28:13.579 --> 00:28:20.819 for you. We need somehow to draw people into that place where they see that everyone is 00:28:20.819 --> 00:28:32.259 under this holy God who will bring every sin to account either on the person of Jesus or 00:28:32.259 --> 00:28:38.139 in spiritual death on the individual. So that changes I think maybe sometimes how we share 00:28:38.139 --> 00:28:44.500 our faith. So, spun through that very quickly, it's a difficult passage. I would encourage 00:28:44.500 --> 00:28:52.259 you even to read it in an even more parafrastic version of the Bible than the SVA. It sometimes 00:28:52.259 --> 00:29:01.339 helps, it makes it slightly easier. But also pray through it and pull out the gems of truth 00:29:01.339 --> 00:29:08.140 that are in each of these woes and don't be discouraged. And I'm absolutely gutted that 00:29:08.140 --> 00:29:15.140 Corey gets to do the last chapter because it's the best one and it's Habakkuk's prayer.